This invention relates to a card game identified by the name `Old Acquantances`, (a trademark owned by Applicant and presently pending in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office) wherein an equal number of cards are dealt to each player, and wherein each player makes a claim or prediction as to the number of tricks (or winning hands) that the player expects to take. The player predicting the highest number of tricks is considered to be the claimer (or bidder). If four players are playing the game, the bidder and the person sitting directly across the table (termed the partner) work as a team to take at least the number of winning hands claimed by the bidder; the other two players (the opponents) work as a team to prevent the bidder and partner from taking the predicted number of tricks.
If there are five players in the game, all players work alone, making the bidder dependent on exchange cards to make the bid. The other players become partners whenever there are 4 to 6 players and work as a team to prevent the successful bidder from taking the preducted number of tricks with 4 or 6 players.
The game is played with six sets of cards containing pictures of activities and scenes associated with different rooms in a home, e.g. the library, living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. In preferred practice of the invention, each set of cards is numbered consecutively from one to twelve. There are thus seventy two cards in the deck of cards, i.e., six sets of cards, with each set containing twelve cards.
The library cards are arbitrarily termed trump cards, i.e. cards that can be played over cards of a different set to win the hand (or trick).
Each set of cards may be likened to a suit in a conventional deck of cards. When the cards are played, each player is required to follow suit, i.e. to play a card in the set (or suit) played by the leading player, unless the person has no cards in the set being played. In that case the person can attempt to trump the cards played (by playing a card from the library set), or the person can discard a card from a different set.
In preferred practice of the invention, the cards in each set are divided into two groups. A first group of low-numbered cards comprises six cards numbered consecutively from 1 through 6; a second group of high numbered cards comprises six other cards numbered consecutively from 7 through 12. The six low numbered cards in each set can be colored differently than the six high numbered cards, to facilitate the process of more easily distinguishing the low numbered cards from the high numbered cards.
The game is played so that each winning trick is either a high numbered card or a low numbered card (not both). During the bidding process (prior to playing the cards to win tricks) each player announces whether he or she intends to play the low numbered cards or the high numbered cards. Each winning trick is ordinarily a low numbered card, or a high numbered card, depending on the announced selection by the successful bidder. Players can discard cards in the non-elected group, but such cards will not determine the winning outcome. For example, if the successful bidder announces that he or she intends to play the low numbered cards (numbered 1 through 6) then cards numbered 7 through 12 will not be considered when determining the winner of any given trick. Conversely, if the successful bidder announces that he or she intends to play the high numbered cards, then the low numbered cards will not be considered when determining the winner.
An exception to this "low number-high number" selection process is in the use of library cards. The library cards are trump cards that can be used whether the successful bidder is playing the low numbered cards or the high numbered cards.
The grouping of the cards into the low numbered group and the high numbered group adds some interest to the game in that it introduces an element of strategy that would otherwise not be present. In an ordinary card game, when a player is dealt cards in the low numbered range, e.g. numbered from 1 to 6, the player has minimal opportunity for winning the game, since all, or most, of the tricks will be taken by the high numbered cards (i.e. 7 or above). With my proposed game format, a player receiving primarily low numbered cards can still bid, on the basis that he or she will be winning tricks with the low numbered cards.
As noted previously, the playing cards contain pictures of activities or scenes associated with different rooms in the home; e.g. the library, living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom. The pictures depict activities and events that might have occurred in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. Persons playing the game are given an insight into the clothing, customs and activities of persons living at the turn of the century. The pictures concentrate on family values associated with arts and crafts, etiquette, family prayer, bedtime stories, baking, canning, family discussions and other activities of worthwhile nature.
During the playing of the game, the older players have the opportunity of explaining how life was at the turn of the century. The younger players learn some of parents' history and early life experiences, as an incidental facet of the game. The game is designed to promote family unity and understanding.
To add further interest to the game, and particularly the historical feature of the game, the rules of the game may provide that the library cards can be used as trump cards only when the picture on the library card bears some relationship to the picture on the card being trumped. For example, a library card dealing with history could be used to trump a card in the living room set depicting a father playing chess with his son. Chess has a historical beginning, so that the two cards are related in a so-called historical sense.
The use of relationships, as a prerequisite for using the library cards as trump cards, adds interest to the game in that it forces the players to give some thought to relationships and events depicted on the cards. The game has a teaching aspect, as well as a strategy aspect.
Various rules and practices may be established to facilitate the orderly playing of the game. The nature of the game may be more completely understood by referring to the attached drawings, which show game cards used in an illustrative embodiment of the invention.